BBC producer deletes blog where he admits political manipulation before PM Questions

A BBC producer has admitted in a BBC blog – now deleted – that Andrew Neil, Laura Kuenssberg and himself manipulated the news to negatively impact Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.

In the blog, the producer – Andrew Alexander – openly admits the BBC team were not just reporting the day’s news but trying to influence it:

“this was a story where we could make an impact”

Alexander also admits the BBC team were fully aware that their actions would influence events:

“we knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact”

And expresses pleasure in seeing the PM use their actions to attack the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn:

“we took a moment to watch the story ripple out across news outlets and social media. Within minutes we heard David Cameron refer to the resignation during his exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn”